Win or your season comes to an end.

That's the scenario the Steinbach Regional Secondary School faces Friday when they meet the Miles Macdonell Buckeyes in the quarterfinals of the Winnipeg High School Football League's CTV Bowl at A.D. Penner Park.

They didn't know it at the time but the Sabres and Buckeyes met in what turned out to be a playoff preview at Eastside Eagles field in Winnipeg last Friday.

Miles Macdonell survived a late SRSS rally and held on for a 9-8 victory in the regular season finale for both teams.

Sabres head coach Jamie Peters says it helps playing the same team in back-to-back weeks, even with their season on the line.

"In terms of preparation for the team, it's similar," said Peters. "You're not necessarily learning a new offense or a new defense. In terms of the prep work from that aspect, things are there. But you've got to be prepared for playoffs in terms of trick plays and reverses and gadget plays that coaches have been holding back. We need to understand there are progressions and we need to make sure we show up and compete."

The SRSS offense struggled moving the ball against the Buckeyes last weekend and Peters is looking forward to seeing that side of the ball step up in the playoffs.

"If they're not fired up from their performance last week and have a chance to have a rematch, I'm not sure if there's anything a coach can do. I think playing this rematch, the way that we played last week, it's a great opportunity to show what kind of character and what type of team we are. I'm just looking for our offense to rebound. We've put in a couple of wrinkles and we've done a couple of things. Hopefully we can get the ball into some of our playmakers hands and we can make some plays."

The Sabres, Buckeyes and Crocus Plains Plainsmen finished the regular season schedule with indentical 4-3 records in the WHSFL's Kas Vidruk Division.

Steinbach Regional is the third seed among the eight playoff teams while Miles Macdonnell is the sixth seed.

"It's always nice to play at home," Peters said. "One of the advantages of playing out at Eastside is that it's a nice turf field so your footing is always good. With kind of the wet fall we've had I'm sure the grass conditions will play into that a little bit which will maybe hinder some of the performance of the game but that's going to be the same for both teams. It's a mindset of protecting your home field and your home turf."

"This is the third year in a row we've hosted Miles Macdonell in the quarterfinals," added the SRSS head coach. "The past two years we've been able to advance and move on. Hopefully the boys work really hard and come out and compete and we do the same thing."

The opening kickoff Friday at A.D. Penner Park is 3:30 p.m.